Over-stress can often be caused by overload or faulted operating conditions and can impart, for example, thermo-mechanical stress on an integrated circuit, which can eventually lead to failure of the circuit.
For example, if a MOSFET device operates at a temperature above its maximum critical temperature, electrical over-stress can cause the MOSFET to eventually fail. Because electrical over-stress can affect the reliability of practically all integrated circuits to some extent, improvements in over-stress detection and protection are always ongoing. As such improvements can extend the lifetime of integrated circuits and devices connected thereto, these improvements are a valuable contribution to the marketplace.